King Edward stood up from where he had been studying the ground. ‘They ride two horses now. Before only one. Jim is sick, or his legs got weary from hangin without stirrups. They stop more than they want.’

‘Are we near them?’

‘Near.’

Nixon turned to Tom.

‘Where now?’

‘The gorge. I can lead you in – as safe as possible, though that isn’t safe.’

King Edward raised his hand.

‘Boss?’

‘Yes.’

‘I want a gun now.’

Nixon took a Remington shotgun from his saddle holster.

‘You know how to load it?’

‘I’ve seen you do it.’

He threw the boy a belt of shells.

‘Tie that round your waist.’

The Skillington boy spat and cursed under his breath. Nixon saw it.

‘What’s wrong, boy?’

‘Ride into a shootin gallery, Tom says. Now the savage has a gun. You’ve seen these two stay up late at the fires after we’ve gone to sleep. How do we know they’re not in cahoots? Leadin us away from anyone who can hear a shot? And after that they could throw us in a cave where no one’d find our bodies for a thousand years, then they ride back in with the outlaws.’

Nixon stared at the Skillington boy’s eyes. He wondered if the boy’s fear was as bad as it sounded.

‘Don’t talk like that, lad.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because men who get that tone have a habit of dying in just the way they predict.’

The Skillington boy shook his head and laughed without mirth and turned his horse away from the others.

‘Fuck me.’

‘Boy?’

‘Yes?’

‘Turn around and face me, boy.’

The Skillington boy pulled his rein.

‘What is it, Sergeant?’

But Nixon could not think of what to say. He turned to Tom Lawton.

‘If they make it all the way up into the rocks before we can get to them, what then?’

‘There’s an outlet. But it’s three days’ ride from the entrance. Like I say, they can hold up in there as long as they like, and when they’re ready they can ride through that outlet in the west. There may be other ways out. And if there are, Jim knows them. But I know that one.’

Nixon turned to the Skillington boy.

‘Ride back to Injune. Go to the station there and enlist Constable Scanlan, Constable Holland and Senior Constable Tasker. Tell them to take whatever weapons and provisions they need. Tell them why. And tell them first to send a cordon along the gorge to the north, around Consuelo pushing up onto the table, even to Purgatory if they’ve got the men.’

‘And then?’

‘Come back. We need you!’

‘Meanwhile you’ll ride straight after their tails? So they can swing round in their saddles and fire on you the minute they hear you?’

‘I’ve let them go twice now, boy. Not this time.’

Nixon reined his horse in the direction of the gorge.

The Skillington boy rode south alone.